Communications of the ACM
Computer Scientist Turned Artist
"Green Balance" created by Erik and Martin Demaine, is one in a series of three curved-crease sculptures in the Smithsonian American Art Museum's permanent collection.
Credit: Erik Demaine and Martin Demaine / MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Erik Demaine is a computer scientist turned artist with expertise in computational origami, the mathematical study of bending and folding. Together with his father Martin, Demaine has created artworks that explore how science and art inspire each other.
Demaine uses computational algorithms to perform his folding research, and he frequently employs a computer drawing program that can draw lines and circles and pinpoint the intersections, so he can print it out and fold it. Demaine notes that although mathematical tools for creating straight crease origami exist, curved creases have been the real challenge. "The mathematical goal is to be able to automatically design, with a computational tool, any [three-dimensional] form you want with these curved creases," he says.
Among the practical applications to Demaine's work is the challenge of finding ways to move large objects through smaller spaces. "There are a lot of scientific and engineering applications to having a physical object that can change shape," Demaine notes. "This comes up in transportation or in the human body in blood vessels."
From National Science Foundation
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